Reader Redesign: The Stain Game

We just flew back from Boston (and boy are our arms tired, har-har) but since we shared our freshly painted bathroom with you guys this morning and we didn’t want to leave you hanging with just one post, we got this Reader Redesign together in the airport for ya (throughout all this travel, we’re doing out best to keep blogging as usual). I know we typically share full room makeovers, but this furniture upgrade had such a creative twist that we had to pass it along. We loved that Beth and Nick rescued this old to-be-trashed buffet with the help of some wood stain applied in an unexpected way. Here’s what Beth had to say about the project:

Hi guys! I love drawing with charcoal, and I decided that I was going to try the same techniques, only using stain on wood, instead of charcoal on paper. It came out so well, we just had to share it with you!

We pulled this buffet out of a burn pile, repaired the burn damage and fixed a structural problem, prepped, primed, and painted the body. Then I drew out some flower petals lightly with a pencil on the top surface of the buffet and began staining with Minwax Ebony. I started with the center petals and stained each petal, starting at the center and working my way out toward the tip of the petal.

As you can see I didn’t stain all the way out to the edge of the petals, because I wanted that to be the lightest portion of my ‘shading.” Using a dry cloth and my finger, I wiped away from the stain to allow a smooth transition from the stained portion to the outer unstained portion of my petal. Rubbing it to create that shaded look. I continued to repeat this process on each petal as I worked my way away from the center of the flower.

I’m soooo super proud of myself. Hope you love it! – Beth & Nick

Isn’t that such a cool idea? For those who might shy away from the painted bottom, you could easily stain the front/sides of a piece and apply this treatment to the top as well. Makes me feel like such a staining novice. But now I’m kind of itching to think of a piece that we could try this on. And it makes me realize that if such an intricate design is possible, someone could attempt something like stripes or tiled triangles too (perhaps with the help of some painters tape?). So if you’re looking for more pics and details about the process, be sure to visit Beth and Nick’s blog, and if anyone else has tried something fun with stain we’d love to hear how it all went down.

This is one of the collest refinishing projects i’ve seen! I just stained an old mid centrury modern tv stand a few weeks ago and would love to try something a little more challenging like this, but I’m no artist! lol

I mean, not sure really haven’t worked with stain, but if you wanted a different look thats easier you could try cheverons or circles or stripes… anything geometric would be easier and kinda subtle/cool. :)

WOW that is AMAZING!!! I would buy that buffet in a heartbeat. She should consider doing this some more and selling her pieces!! I wish I had the artistic skill to pull something off like that, but I don’t, so I do like your idea of doing a more simple design! I’m curious how she got those clean lines around the petals?

Julia, I have been following Beth’s blog for a long time, and they do sell their pieces!! Either you can bring them a piece and tell them how to re-do it, or you can buy from her “in stock already completed” collection. She is awesome!

That’s gorgeous! Can’t believe I never thought of this, but I would probably be too scared to try it. Mostly because I can’t draw and my flowers would be weird looking.
I did do something with painter’s tape and stripes on my 50’s cocktail cart though, you can have a look here: http://bunniesandstripes.blogspot.fr/2012/10/after-after.html

In a world where pinterest has taken over making no idea unique, I must say, this is absolutely fabulous.
This is 100% unique and so cool!
What talent!
I wish I had somewhere to do this… or at least try.
Now…. off to pin this!
:)

wow! that is spectacular – and so much more awesome than the furniture redesign that my 2 yr old did this morning w/ our recliner and a pink highlighter! i wish i had the artistic talent to be able to do something awesome like that buffet – and i love the color they chose for the bottom of it, too. so gorgeous.

Wow, what a great idea!! Was looking for something neat to do on my next little one’s dresser. We simply stained the drawer fronts and top on my boy’s and painted the body a Martha Stewart yellow-ish color… will definitely be pinning this for a future project idea!!